Drama Review- Dragon Zakura
Monday, October 18, 2010
Dragon Zakura is a popular drama about a lawyer Sakuragi Kenji who was a racer in high school. His law practice is not successful due to his background and lack of career achievements. In the beginning, he takes on the case of rescuing Ryuzan High- a school with an average score of 36 from bankruptcy. When all else fails, he decides to create a special class with five students and send then all the Todai (Tokyo University)- the best university in Japan and it is considered impossible to get in, even for bright students.
His special class consists of Yuusuke (Yamashita Tomoshisa)- a boy with terrible grades whose father abandons his mother and leaves them a 3 million yen debt. Sakuragi pays the debt in exchange of Yuusuke's agreement that he will be a part of the special class. Yuusuke's friends Mizuno and Ogata (Koike Teppei) and girlfriend (Yui Aragaki) also join the special class along with Kobayashi who is a fashion-conscious girl. Later, Okuno Ichirou who is a meek guy with a twin in Shumeikan (a good school) also joins teh special class.
The drama mainly focuses on teaching students using unconventional teaching methods. Sakuragi is a cold-hearted person and none of the students like him. The drama aims to show that nothing is impossible and even idiots (as he calls them) can get into Todai. Despite this, the drama is very realistic and sometimes this leads to the drama being pessimistic and not having a happy ending in many episodes.
This drama can inspire anyone who is studying for exams, college entrance etc. to study better. I felt very inspired to study after watching it. It is worth seeing, even though it has minor flaws.
Characters-4.6
Setting-3
Plot-4.3
Direction-4
Dialogue-4
Pros- Inspiring and shows the reality
Characters are easy to relate to
Interesting minor characters
Good actors who do their roles well
Cons- Too realistic at times (yes I know I gave that one as a pro too but whether realism is good or not depends on different viewpoints)